The Pittsburgh Steelers are hanging on to their playoff hopes by a minuscule thread. If they beat the Cleveland Browns at Heinz Field this Sunday and the Cincinnati Bengals lose to the Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs lose to the San Diego Chargers and the New York Jets lose to the Miami Dolphins, the Steelers will earn the AFC’s 6th seed.
If they do miss out on the playoffs – which seems likely – one thing they won’t miss out on are the services of strong safety Troy Polamalu. Unless they want to clear cap space – Polamalu is scheduled to make $8.25 million in 2014 – Pittsburgh won’t have to worry about their star defender retiring, according to a report from Scott Brown at ESPN.com.
"“I’ll honor my contract with the Steelers,” Polamalu told ESPN.com on Friday. “That’s what I hope to do, but we’ll see how everything bears out after this game.”"
Plagued by a plethora of injury problems in 2012, this season has brought renewed health and optimism for the 32-year-old Polamalu, who earlier was uncertain about his future with the only organization he ever known since being drafted out of USC in the 1st round in 2003.
"“I feel great,” Polamalu said, according to the ESPN.com report. “I honestly feel better than I did at the end of last year even with the games that I missed.”"